Ellen Gordon Reeves, career expert and author of Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?, is always networking–even with her co-panelists during a sitdown with Katie Couric! Below she guest posts about her latest connection and how she’s helping him find employment.

Norm Elrod (joblessandless.com) is my latest Extreme Professional Makeover subject. We met virtually on a segment called Jobless in America on @katiecouric.com, and if you need an on-line marketing expert, Norm’s your man.

Recently we were face-to-face (or really, face-to-screen): Katie, Conor Dougherty from the Wall Street Journal, Norm and Scott Pierce, another blogger, via Skype.  After the show I asked if I could get Norm’s contact info and the next day we laid out a basic professional makeover plan for him: a blog post about the show, a fantasy job description, a quick and easy new look, and a revamped resume and elevator pitch.

Stay tuned for the Before and After shots.  But in the meantime, check out this video of our talk with Katie Couric…I never thought Katie would be asking me the Nose Ring question! Click here to watch the video on the CBS News website.

This spring we published Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?, an essential guide for young job-seekers by Ellen Gordon Reeves, and what an adventure it has been. One could never have guessed from Ellen’s stellar performance on the Early Show this morning that just a few short months ago she had never been on television before.

An author’s readiness for the national spotlight is the source of anxiety for every publicist. Many new authors come in with a belief they could face anyone from Oprah to Charlie Rose at a moment’s notice, but very few manage to project the confident smooth-talking expert you’re used to seeing on your screen without many hours of lengthy (and expensive) media training and multiple Advils ingested by yours truly.

Thankfully Ellen Reeves’s training was capped off with a few easy-going conference calls and a small iced coffee at the Time Warner Center. Ever since Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview? launched in May, Ellen has taken her new-grad advice to such venues as CNN, NPR, ABC News Now, Fox News, EXTRA, and just this morning, the Early Show. Her natural eloquence and bullet-proof expertise have impressed producers around the country and she received the highest compliment an author can get from quite a few of them—an invitation to come back.

With all of this media success, one wonders if maybe Ellen’s new book should be “How to Ace an Interview.” But that might be a chapter in Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview? already.

Oleg Lyubner
Senior Publicist

Click here to read an excerpt from Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?

The author of Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview? dishes out 10 great tips to jump-start your job hunt.

1. Stop looking for a job and start looking for a person.  The right person will lead you to the right job.
2. Stop sending your résumés into cyberspace. It’s a black hole.
3. Get your parents and relatives off your back and on your side—they’re in your network, too.
4. Get a business card—looking for a job is your job now.
5. Don’t waste valuable résumé real estate on useless conventions like an objective, a GPA, a summary of qualifications, or lines like “References Available Upon Request.”
6. Always dress for a phone interview. If you feel more professional, you’ll sound it.
7. Never say yes to a job offer right off the bat; accept the offer of employment, then negotiate the terms.
8. Create more than one résumé. Tailor each one to the job at hand, with specific categories correlated to the stated requirements.
9. If you want help, be specific. Don’t say “I’ll do anything”—people won’t know where to start.
10. Being young and inexperienced doesn’t have to be a liability: You’re flexible, relatively cheap, and willing to work hard to get ahead.

For more job-hunting tips, click here to listen to Ellen on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

Ellen Gordon Reeves started helping her friends with their résumés in high school and now consults to individuals and institutions in the U.S. and abroad. She currently serves as the résumé and job-hunting expert at the Columbia Publishing Course. More about Ellen Gordon Reeves

Barbara Flanagan is the author of Flanagan’s Smart Home: The 98 Essentials for Starting Out, Starting Over, Scaling Back

Purge the clutter. Outfit your home with care: The 34 essential kitchen tools. The 9 essential cleaning and fixing products. The 13, and only 13, things a bedroom needs to make it a haven of rest and privacy. Each item has been field-tested and rated for its environmental, social, and aesthetic impact.

Tell me about the genesis of Flanagan’s Smart Home.
A: When I moved down from three stories of Victorian manse to a little cottage, after a divorce, I spent many days paring down my possessions. At the same time I was moving my mother to a continuing care apartment and my children off to college. What we all had in common, all three generations of us, was the need to live smaller and smarter by limiting our chattel to lovable things that worked well for many reasons. For this book, I decided to narrow down those reasons and seek out the ideal products, doing the homework for people who’ll want to ask the same question I did: What do I really need to live a good, comfortable life? In other words, I wrote the book I wish I could have bought a few years ago.

Can you give me an estimate of how many products and items of furniture you tested that didn’t make the cut?
A: Whoa, lots. I checked out thousands of images, and tested hundreds of products in showrooms, trade shows, stores, and homes of friends. Then I tested the finalists—like the low-voltage electric blanket, kitchen knife, microfiber cleaning products, and many others–over months, under heavy use, at home.

You write about product design, but you’re also a product designer yourself. Can you tell me about some of the products you’ve created?
A: I’ve designed several products for the MoMA Store www.momastore.org (NY’s Museum of Modern Art), and my new company, Flanagan LLC, is launching its first two desktop product this year. www.barbaraflanagan.com The MoMA stores in NYC and Japan will introduce one of them. My favorite product to date, however, is the Shondelier, a custom bathroom chandelier (illuminated remotely) containing a rainhead shower—that looks unnecessarily glamorous and dangerous at the same time.

From where you’re sitting right now, what items from the book can you see? (Are you sitting on one?)
A: Yes, I’m in my studio now, sitting on an excellent, solid maple chair from a 1950s Philadelphia catering hall (I had it painted half black, half not). I like it better than my fancy Aeron chair, actually. If took my laptop in the kitchen/dining room, I’d see the trusty microwave, toaster oven, electric kettle, dining table and dining chairs. Also, one white cat strolling over it all like she owns it.

In retrospect, are there any items you wish you had included?
A: One reviewer was incensed that I’d omitted a toilet plunger. He’s right, but house plumbing works, so I forgot. I should thank him for taking the book to heart.

What are you reading at the moment?
A: The UPS bible of shipping regulations and rates. Surprisingly thick. As an entrepreneur, I need to know lots of numbers and rules.

What’s your favorite snack to eat while writing?
A: No snacking while writing! That’s naughty and bad for the keyboard. I only snack while procrastinating.

What’s your preferred procrastination method?
A: Snacking. On 35-calorie rice cakes. If cheesecake is unavailable.

If you were to write a memoir, what would be its title?
A: If I’m So Smart How Come I’m Not______?

What’s your secret ambition?
A: Having an exhibit of my sculpture and drawings, with an art opening, white wine, and people I don’t know milling around looking at the stuff like it’s art. So this fall I worked really hard, had a show, sold a piece, and it was that dream come true. Actually better! My new secret ambition is to be less ambitious for a couple weeks.